Deepfakes Threaten Georgia Elections: How AI Fuels Disinformation

You scroll through your social media feed one evening. A video catches your eye. It shows a candidate for a local Georgia office, their face clear, their voice familiar. They are saying something outrageous, something completely against their known character. You feel a jolt of surprise, maybe even anger. You consider sharing it. After all, you saw it with your own eyes. But did you? The rise of AI-generated video and audio, what we call deepfakes, has moved from a theoretical threat to a daily reality. In the coming 2024 elections and beyond, Georgia finds itself on the front lines of this new digital battle. The technology is dazzlingly new, but the goal is ancient: to deceive you, to manipulate your vote, and to undermine the very trust that holds our democracy together.

I have covered political disinformation for years, from crude, badly photoshopped images to sophisticated bot networks. This is different. The barrier to creating believable lies has collapsed. Where once a propagandist needed resources and skill, now a single person with a consumer laptop and a few hundred dollars in software can fabricate reality. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice warns that deepfakes pose a unique and urgent threat to elections because they exploit our most trusted sense, sight. When you see and hear something, your brain is wired to believe it. Bad actors know this. They are counting on it.

Consider what is already happening. In one recent case, a fake robocall mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice, telling voters in New Hampshire to stay home during their primary. The Federal Communications Commission has since moved to make such AI-generated voice calls illegal. Closer to Georgia, imagine a fabricated clip of a candidate for the Public Service Commission admitting to a corrupt deal with a utility company. Or a fake audio recording of a state legislator slurring their words or using a racial epithet. These are not fantasies. They are inevitable scenarios. Bruce Schneier, a renowned security technologist, told me these tools are a force multiplier for disinformation. He said, “The cost of creating confusion is now almost zero.”

The immediate danger is not that a single deepfake will change an entire election outcome, though it might swing a tight local race. The greater peril is the erosion of shared truth. When you cannot trust what you see, you start to distrust everything. This creates a fog of doubt where legitimate events can be dismissed as fakes, and blatant lies can be accepted as truth. It is a strategy often called proof by denial. If everything can be fake, then nothing can be real. This environment breeds cynicism and apathy. Why vote if you cannot believe anything a candidate says? This disillusionment is exactly what attackers want.

Georgia is uniquely vulnerable. Our elections are often decided by razor-thin margins. We are a premier battleground state where every vote matters intensely. This high-stakes environment incentivizes bad actors to invest in these new tools. A deepfake does not need to fool everyone. It only needs to sow enough confusion in a key demographic or geographic area to tip the balance. Furthermore, our state has a history of electoral disputes and misinformation campaigns. This new technology threatens to pour jet fuel on those existing embers.

So what can you do? Your skepticism is your first and best defense. Before you react to a shocking political video or audio clip, pause. Ask basic questions. Where did this originate? Is a reputable news organization reporting on it? Does the candidate’s official channel deny it? Look for technical tells, which are becoming harder to spot but can include:

• Unnatural eye blinking
• Strange hair movement
• A slight sync issue between audio and video
• Inconsistent facial expressions
• Inappropriate background sounds
• Unusual patterns in speech

The Washington Post and other outlets have started simple but effective guides on how to spot fakes. Use them.

The responsibility also falls on platforms and leaders. Social media companies must enforce clear labels for AI-generated content and rapidly demote proven fakes. Election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger need public awareness campaigns. They must prepare to quickly and authoritatively debunk fraudulent media targeting our elections. Legislation has a role too, but laws often lag behind technology. The ultimate defense is a public that refuses to be gullible. As Joan Donovan, a misinformation scholar at Boston University, puts it, “The answer to a polluted information environment is media literacy.”

This is not a distant problem. It is here. The videos and audio clips designed to mislead you about Georgia’s elections are already being crafted in dark corners of the internet. They will test your instincts. They will feed your biases. Your vote is the target. Protecting it now requires more than just showing up at the polls. It requires showing up online with a critical mind. Do not let your eyes deceive you. Trust needs verification. In the age of the deepfake, your vigilance is the bedrock of democracy.